Timeline:
Fruits Basket: Towards the start, maybe even in the first volume.
Maximum Ride: You know when the Flock is taken back to the School in the third book and are told that all that happened was a dream? Well, instead of that... this happens:
2
Nudge slowly woke up. She looked around. There were houses all around her. Perhaps she was in a neighborhood...
She sighed. The last thing she remembered was battling the FlyBoys with Iggy, the Gasman, and Angel, and then getting tied up. She hoped they were okay.
Looking up, she saw a man walking toward her. He wore a suit, was very pale, and had slick black hair that went over his left eye.
When he reached her, he helped pick her up.
"How did you get here?" he asked, his voice quiet. "This is private property,"
She shrugged. "I was dumped here. Last thing I remember is... being with my friends in this cave. I'm not sure of where we were, perhaps Florida..."
He gave her a strange look. "Florida?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. I can understand if you find this weird. Me too. Well, I don't find you weird, per say, but this whole situation-"
"Excuse me," he interrupted her, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Did you say Florida?"
She nodded again. "That's what I said. We were there before, and we really knew we were there. I mean, we went to Disney World and everything! It was great! I mean, some of the rides seemed childish, but Gazzy and Angel loved them,"
The man took her by the arm and started walking her down the street. "Are you sure... you're okay?" he asked.
She nodded, finally noticing the worry in his voice. "Sure, I'm fine. I'm always fine. Well, I get scratches and scars and such, but as long as I'm not dead, I'm fine. That's what Max says, 'If you're not dead, you're fine',"
He nodded, not really listening.
This got Nudge mad. She was completely used to the flock picking on her and Max putting her hand over Nudge's mouth and making comments about her chattiness. But this... he was flat-out ignoring her. He didn't even want to try to hear what she had to say.
"Um, excuse me?" she asked. "Are you even listening to me?"
He looked over at her. "Yes, it's just..." he sighed, shaking her head.
"What?" she asked.
He stopped walking abruptly. "...You said you were in Florida," he said, his voice stern.
"Yeah," she said, having learned to say as little as possible. No one else had had that sort of impact on her before.
"You said you went to Disney World," he continued.
She nodded, since he was looking straight at her. Where was he going with this?
"Is this some sort of joke?"
Her eyes widened. "N-no!" she stuttered. "I'm telling the truth! Listen," she said, forgetting her pact to herself to say as little as possible. "my name is Nudge, and I want to know where I am, and why you would think I'm playing a joke on you! Why would you think that? I almost never joke, and I certainly don't joke with people I've just met!"
He looked down at her, at her dirt- and mud-ridden clothes, clothes that were slightly torn. He noticed a few places on her that were bruised, or bleeding, and took her arm, beginning to walk her again. "I'm a doctor," he said. "Let me fix you up,"
She automatically jerked her arm away from him. He couldn't see her wings! Max would just hate her. "Uh... no," she muttered. "No thanks,"
He stared at her, which freaked Nudge out. After being at the school, having people stare at her was scary. Normally it lead to horrible experiments. "I have to check you out," he said. "Being dumped here all the way from Florida is... well, not the thing to do."
"Can you at least tell me who you are, and where I am?" she asked.
He stopped again. "...I'm Hatori Sohma. And we're in Japan,"
She laughed. "Oh, that was a good joke. I guess that makes us even! I guess you have a sense of humor. Hopefully it isn't as bad as Gazzy's, his jokes are sick!"
Hatori began leading her up the street again. "This is no joke. You really are in Japan,"
She looked at him, frightened. She was so far away from the flock. What if she never saw them again? "Man..." she looked around. "What is this place, anyway?" she asked.
"Sohma property. These are houses of my relatives."
She looked over at him. "Are you normally so open?" She learned that when people that weren't part of the flock were open with them, it was part of a trap. Then again, she felt like she should trust him. Then again again, Anne was open with them, and she turned out to be a bigger part of the School than Jeb, who the flock had grown to hate, thanks to Max.
He shook his head. "No... here we are," he gestured to a small building.
Leading her in, he had her sit down on a stool.
Looking up at him uncomfortably, she muttered, "Uh... I'm okay,"
"What are you hiding?" he asked.
She sighed. He was probably going to find out about her eventually. "...Nothing," she took off her jacket. "Except these."
I keep leaving it at cliffhangers, don't I? :) Well, Nudge met with her polar opposite, Hatori Sohma. Sorry if the characters are OOC. I gotta start reading Fruits Basket again... I think I'll start doing that tonight. Next, I think I'll introduce my favorite FB character.
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